What’s the biggest constellation out there, and the smallest? What's the farthest thing a human eye can see - or the hottest star - or the closest star cluster?

Radio telescopes — such as the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), HIRAX, and the planned CHORD — will lead to unprecedented advances in astronomy. How will they shape future research? To find out more, join us online on Wednesday, October 28 at 6:00pm.

As we wrap up our series, we'll go over a few easy winter targets to get you started on your next season of observing. Join us to take a look at rising winter favourites such as Orion, Taurus, the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula.

This presentation introduces the great divide between pseudoscience and science that exists in the world of archaeoastronomy, just as it does in other fields. Archaeology uses the material record excavated from sites such as Cahokia and Stonehenge, information from architecture, and well-informed cultural perspectives to learn the role played by the skies in particular cultures. We’ll pay particular attention to the indigenous Americas with examples from the “Old World” too.

The Origins Institute at McMaster University invites you to a public lecture with Dr. Kailash C. Sahu, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, and an instrument scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope. Did you know that 5000 exoplanets have been discovered to date through a variety of techniques? Gravitational microlensing is one such technique that can detect planets around faraway stars, and also planets orbiting at large distances from their parent stars.

In her beautiful and haunting memoir, The Smallest Lights in the Universe, MIT astrophysicist and planetary scientist, Sara Seager, chronicles the process of rediscovering a new future after a devastating tragedy. Starting as a young girl in Toronto where fascination with the stars and big questions are chronicled, Seager traces her love of astronomy from U of T to Harvard and eventually to MIT where she excels as Professor of Planetary Science and Physics, and one of the school’s most influential researchers.

The Origins Institute at McMaster University invites you to a public lecture with Dr. Brad K Gibson, Professor and Director of the E.A. Milne Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Hull in the UK.

When better to talk about meteors and meteorites than on the peak of a meteor shower?

Orion is one of the most recognizable constellations in our night sky, and is a favourite of astronomers everywhere for all the treasures it holds.

Speaker: Dr Michael Daly, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University